Chapter 104 I'll Hit You
Lan Wu opened her mouth and looked at him—was this a question of whether she liked him or not?
Chu Mingheng had no idea how serious this matter was!
"I've been thinking about how you've been longing to go back to Yilan Palace. Yilan Palace is so wonderful, how could I not let you have your way?" He looked at Lan Wu, his tone natural.
Lan Wu was about to back away when she immediately realized she shouldn't. She had tried to avoid him all day and hadn't gotten any advantage from it. So she stiffened her neck and faced Chu Mingheng directly, angrily saying, "You just let yourself bully me."
Chu Mingheng suddenly chuckled, his fingers pressing on Lan Wu's ankle, gripping the circumference, then touching her calf. He noticed she was still trembling, so he simply lowered his head and said, "I was just teasing you?"
I don't think so.
He pointed meaningfully at her calf, where there was hardly any flesh; it was probably not even as thick as his arm.
Lan Wu blushed and lifted her foot to get down.
“Every time I talk to you about serious matters, you just make things up and don’t tell me anything—I stopped telling you after that.” Lan Wu turned her face away.
"Alright, don't move around, or you'll cry out in pain again." Chu Mingheng held her down, preventing her from getting off the ground.
The surroundings were quiet for a moment, until a breeze picked up outside the hall, and then she heard Chu Mingheng speak.
"On the night Zeng was sent to the Cold Palace, I went to see her."
Lan Wu paused, recalling which day it was. Although Zeng Shi had been sent to the Cold Palace, she was still alive. Living a life of barely surviving, she probably couldn't do anything evil. But why did Chu Mingheng go to see her?
Chu Mingheng moved closer to Lan Wu and looked closely at her delicate and charming face. Every inch of it suited his taste and made his heart soften.
For some time now, he has been having dreams every night. In his dreams, there is always a light spring rain. Although it is spring, he can't even see the sunlight. Everyone in the palace says that Consort Lan has passed away.
He wandered around Yilan Palace like a lost soul, searching for a figure he could not find. He could hear the palace servants talking about Consort Lan of Yilan Palace from time to time, saying that she committed suicide and that her body was disposed of by the order of Consort Rou.
At first, he thought these words were absurd, but when he turned around, there was no one in Yilan Palace, so where did the voice come from?
After waking up, Lan Wu was still sound asleep in his arms, but these dreams were so strange that he couldn't pretend they hadn't happened.
After all, I dreamt of Lan Wu first, and then I saw Lan Wu in person.
For a concubine to commit suicide is a grave crime, but Lan Wu is so afraid of pain, how could she commit suicide?
Where was he then?
How could he let Lan Wu commit suicide? Even if Lan Wu made a huge mistake, he would only give her a good scolding to make her realize her mistake.
That's impossible.
Thinking of the concubine Rou that the palace maid in his dream had mentioned, he went to the Cold Palace that night.
But dreams and reality are ultimately different, and Zeng himself is now in dire need of protection.
Unexpectedly, he also learned the secrets of the fire at Kunning Palace from Zeng.
It's strange. The fire at Kunning Palace was investigated back then, and those who should have been punished are already buried underground, their remains not even enough to be pieced together. But Zeng's implication is that there are still people who escaped.
Zeng used this as a bargaining chip to save her life, but now that Chu Mingheng knew about it, how could he let her use that little bit of leverage?
This matter is really difficult to investigate. Not to mention that so many years have passed, many palace servants died in the fire at Kunning Palace. A few days before the fire, due to the relocation of the inner palace, another batch of palace servants were sent to Kunning Palace to serve. Now, if we investigate them one by one, many of the surviving people have been released from the palace and disappeared without a trace.
However, it wasn't that they couldn't find anything at all. On the day Lan Wu came to the Emperor to deliver a purse, it just so happened that the people below found a palace maid who had escaped from the fire years ago.
The palace maid's name was Han Shuang. She was already dead on the roster, but then a new palace maid named Qiu He was added to the list of those who were released from the palace that year.
If the arson incident had nothing to do with Han Shuang, then she wouldn't have gone to such lengths to change her name and leave the palace.
Anyone capable of such a feat must have accomplices behind them. What was initially discovered to be merely the influence of Consort Wen's past connections seems to be more complex than it appears.
The person has already been released from the palace, so finding them again will not be easy.
He found the news hilarious when he heard it.
His father was truly capable to allow these palace servants to live comfortably outside the palace for so many years.
Chu Mingheng only told Lan Wu about the latter part of the story. As for what happened in the dream, he was worried that telling Lan Wu about it would frighten her, so he decided to leave it at that.
"You ask me if I want to lock you up. If I say yes, you should be so afraid that you won't see me again."
"There's no other way; I can only feel at ease when you're by my side."
"I'm just asking you to spend more time with me, and you won't even do that. You're always running around playing." Chu Mingheng said, narrowing his eyes slightly, looking at Lan Wu with a rather fierce and cold expression. "You just can't stay here properly, is that it?"
We were just talking about serious business, and now we're talking about her again.
Lan Wu couldn't help but defend herself: "That's your fault, it's—it's your problem. Anyone can leave the palace to play. Besides, I didn't leave the palace. I just—I just left my own Yilan Palace. Isn't that still your territory?"
Who would dare to so openly say that the emperor has a problem?
Lan Wu dared to do it.
She was determined to correct Chu Mingheng's bad habit, so she added, "If you insist on locking me up, I'm not a bird. If you push me too far one day, I'll—"
Chu Mingheng tightened his grip slightly, staring at Lan Wu, waiting to see what she would say. If she said something she shouldn't, he was sure Lan Wu would regret opening her mouth.
Lan Wu was also quite wary. She stopped mid-sentence, saw his gaze, and reluctantly withdrew her imposing manner. She moved her lips, kicked him unwillingly, and said, "I'll hit you!"
Oh, so it was just her being coquettish.
Chu Mingheng thought to himself that at least he hadn't heard anything about running away or dying, otherwise he would have locked Lan Wu in that secret chamber again and given her a good talking-to.
"Go ahead and hit me. I have thick skin, so be careful not to hurt A-Wu's hands."
Lan Wu was so angry at his shameless attitude that she couldn't speak. She stared at him with wide eyes, her chest heaving as she breathed heavily. Her face turned red and then white. She struggled to free her feet from his embrace and stepped onto the palace carpet to stand up.
Her legs were still weak. She had overestimated herself and underestimated Chu Mingheng. In the next instant, she bent her knees and fell forward without warning.
"See, I already told you to go to the couch." Chu Mingheng was prepared and caught her, carrying her to the couch.
Lan Wu felt tired again, but fortunately, a palace servant outside came to report that a minister had arrived at the Imperial Study.
She fell back onto the couch, turned her back to Chu Mingheng, and said in a muffled voice, "Your Majesty, please go now, I want to sleep."
Chu Mingheng wasn't in a hurry. He covered her with a blanket, leaned down and kissed her forehead and cheeks, saying, "I'll be back as soon as I've finished dealing with things. If you're bored, just ask Luo Yun to get you some books to read."
"If you miss me, send someone to tell me, and I will come back."
Lan Wu nudged him, urging him to hurry up and leave.
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